A week of chaos

Two minutes into Monday 14 November, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit near Hanmer Springs, collapsing houses, isolating the coastal township of Kaikōura and lifting parts of the seabed 4m out of the water. Two deaths were linked to the quake.

People were asked to stay away from the Wellington CBD after several multi-storey buildings were damaged, and glass fell into streets.

Two men made extraordinary journeys to reach their families in the quake-affected areas.

Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King

Andrew Bowmar flew his Cessna 185 plane from Gore to check on his family on the southern bank of the Clarence River outside Kaikōura. Unsure if the grass airstrip was safe to use, he found a stretch of the highway to land on.

"My wife rang me at two this morning and my daughter and they said it [the house] was totalled. So, I rang the boss, he picked me up in a tractor and brought me across the river and I jumped in my truck and I just kept coming until I couldn't get any further," Mr Keehan said.

There were concerns for some kayakers who had been on Clarence River, which breached, but they were found safe and well.

Saturday - Sewage warning for Kaikōura

At a town meeting, Kaikōura district mayor Winston Gray said people's minds were already starting to shift from response to recovery mode.

"With the speed of media today, spread across the globe, saying the town is wrecked - it is not wrecked, our infrastructure is damaged, but some of our operators could be going again within a couple of weeks."

Defence Force and acting Civil Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee, and Chief of the Defence Force Lieutenant General Tim Keating made an official visit to the foreign warships which helped in evacuation and recovery efforts in Kaikōura, thanking them for their efforts.